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Menari is the Audubon Zoo's first baby orangutan in 13 years and her name means "dance" in Indonesian. "I've never heard so many 'awws' in one day in my life,' " said Jerry Dillon Jr., a primate keeper who held her most of the day. "They love her." Menari, whose name means "dance" in Indonesian, was born at the zoo June 10 to first-time mother Feliz and father Berani, who briefly escaped his zoo enclosure earlier this year. Menari became the first orangutan born at Audubon since 1996 and was one of just two orang births in the United States this year, zoo officials said. Her species is endangered in its Indonesian homeland. Illegal logging, hunting, illegal pet trading and the conversion of rain forests into palm oil plantations have devastated orangutans' natural habitat and reduced their numbers. Menari's birth, then, merited close attention. Staff members placed her in a nursery at the zoo's Animal Health Care Center. There, about a dozen caretakers take turns sleeping on a cot and feeding her out of a bottle, changing her diaper and playing with her when she wants attention, said Ty Fayard, the zoo's assistant curator of mammals. -Ramon Antonio Vargas, nola.com, September 26, 2009- Read the whole article at Nola.com
Menari

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